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Volkswagen AG, Swedish truck maker Scania AB’s largest shareholder, rejected German truck maker MAN AG’s $13.3 billion hostile bid for Scania, saying it prefers the two companies try to achieve a “friendly” combination, Bloomberg reported.

Evidence is accumulating that freight volumes are falling significantly and that the traditional fourth-quarter peak was all but nonexistent, although analysts and fleet executives remain unsure of what will happen in the first half of the new year.

General Electric Co. unit GE Equipment Services said Thursday it acquired trailer-tracking technology firm Terion Inc.

Ryder System said late Thursday that it will freeze its pension system and shift to a 401(k) savings plan, in a move that will affect about a third of its employees.

Intermodal and logistics firm RoadLink USA said Thursday that it has acquired Transus Intermodal, an intermodal trucking services company.

First-time U.S. jobless claims fell by 26,000 last week to 299,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Trucking component maker ArvinMeritor and Wal-Mart Transportation have agreed to develop a dual-mode, diesel-electric drivetrain for a Class 8 tractor, the two said.

Crude oil closed at below $52 a barrel Thursday for the first time in 19 months after a report showed that U.S. fuel consumption plunged to the lowest since April 2004, Bloomberg reported.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration proposed a rule Thursday to mandate the use of electronic onboard recorders for habitual violators of federal hours-of-service rules.

Trucking, couriers and messengers, and warehousing and storage revenue reached $292 billion in 2005, up from $266 billion the year before, the U.S. Census Bureau reported.